In the above identified U.S. patent application there is disclosed a low profile test clip which has particular application for interconnection with the input/output leads of an electrical component or device, such as an integrated circuit package, for the purpose of attaching test equipment to the leads thereof arranged in plural rows consisting of 14, 16, 32 or 40 leads for example. The test clip comprises an electrical cable of the flat or ribbon type including plural electrical conductors, a pair of low height clip bodies molded to the cable, each clip body including therein plural electrical contacts having exposed contacting portions for engaging the leads of the electrical device and a mounting portion about which the clip body is molded and which is electrically connected to a respective conductor of the cable at a portion thereof from which the cable insulation has been removed, and a coupling mechanism for coupling the pair of bodies with respect to each other for mounting of the test clip to the electrical device with respective electrical contacts engaged with respective leads of the device. The utilized coupling mechanism includes parallel leaf springs at respective lateral ends of the clip bodies to which the clip bodies are also molded.
Manufacture of such test clip heretofore was accomplished by first soldering the contacts to respective conductors of the cable at portions of the conductors from which the cable insulation had been removed to form a cable/contact sub-assembly. The sub-assembly was then placed along with the leaf springs into the cavity of a mold for molding of the clip bodies about respective portions of the cable and portions of the contacts with the soldered junctions being fully encapsulated by the clip bodies to provide a hermetic seal about the junctions. After the mold was closed, molten plastic material, from which the clip bodies were formed, would be introduced into the mold cavity to fill the same, this involving flow of the molten plastic material around the cable to provide clip body portions both above and below the cable.
In such prior manufacturing procedure, there was a problem of cable shifting when the plastic clip bodies were molded around the cable. That is, forced flow of the molten plastic material engaging a planar surface of the cable in the mold cavity would tend to shift or displace the cable from its desired intermediate spaced position between top and bottom surfaces of the mold cavity. Consequently, the cable would not be located properly in the molded clip bodies. The cable shifting problem necessitated the scrapping of a considerable number of the clips which added to the overall cost of manufacturing the clips.